If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 453

Chautauqua Hotel, 1903, New York

The other day I was looking for something in my grandmother’s (Lil Anna’s) old photo album and unexpectedly came across this postcard of the Chautauqua Hotel (New York State) identified and dated on the photo at the lower left and middle.  The card is pasted in the album and as it resisted removal and I did not want to damage it, the reverse side remains somewhat a mystery.  Since this was during the period when postcards had undivided backs and therefore only the name and address could be on one side any message would have appeared across the photo.

When Anna left Norway in 1902 she traveled with a ticket paid for by a sponsor family living in Buffalo, New York, which is not too far away from Lake Chautauqua.  Their name and address was printed on a card and pinned to her coat while she waited at Ellis Island to go through immigration.  She described feeling like a parcel post package waiting to be delivered.  This was a fairly common way for young people to be able to travel to American.  Boys would end up usually doing farm work and girls did mostly housework or tended children.  In 1907 when Anna returned to Norway on a visit she began encouraging friends and relatives to come to America.  She became a sponsor and paid for the tickets, when the ticket was paid off she turned it around and sent for the next person.  Axel and Anna even had a small house on their Lake Union property where the newly arrived immigrant could live until he or she got a job and could be on their own. 

While in Buffalo, Anna worked for the sponsor family for 2 years to pay off the passage fare and save some money so she could go to a young ladies finishing school in New York.  Unfortunately, she did not include the name of the family in her journal.  Later she worked in the garment industry sewing clothing before going to Boston, Massachusetts to live with her brother, John, and his wife, Lydia for a short period of time and eventually traveling by rail across the country to Seattle in time to visit the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo in 1909.  She married Axel Schroder in Seattle in 1912.

Anna Hornnes Schroder, 1912

Lake Chautauqua is about 17 miles or 27 km long and 2 miles or 3.2 km wide with a maximum depth of 78 ft or 24 m.  Buffalo is on Lake Erie and Chautauqua is not far from Lake Erie.  The name of the county and the lake come from the language of the Erie people who lived in this area.  The Erie language is now extinct.  The lake is used for boating, fishing and tourism.  There are many shops, restaurants and entertainment.  There is also a stern-wheeler replica, the Chautuaqua Belle, that offers sight-seeing cruises on the lake. 

Since it is a souvenir card, and more than likely purchased while on a vacation, it seems likely that sometime during the 2 years Anna worked for the family in Buffalo they took a trip to the lake and that is how the card came to be pasted in her photo album.

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua_Lake

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 452

Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

Today’s postcard is a product of the J Salmon Ltd printing and publishing firm of Kent, England.  Sadly, the company that was founded in 1880 and known as the oldest established postcard and calendar publisher in Britain is no longer in existence.  The card is unused and has the number code:  1-26-01-61 at the lower left corner on the reverse side.  As the title printed on the front of the card says, the photograph is of Shakespeare’s birthplace. 

Joseph Salmon was a London bookseller who bought a stationer’s store in 1880 with the idea of establishing a printing business in Kent, England.  In 1898 he transferred the control of the company to his son, also named Joseph.  Fifth generation brothers, Harry and Charles Salmon, last managed the private family owned and operated company.  They stopped printing and sold the remaining stock in 2018 citing that due to changing habits and technology the demand for postcards had dropped.  Facebook and Instagram having made postcards all but redundant in a decade.

The logo for J Salmon Ltd is, not surprisingly, a salmon!

Shakespeare’s house has been restored and is now a popular, small museum open to the public managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.  It is believed that Shakespeare born in 1564 and spent his childhood years here.  It would have been considered quite a substantial home for the time but today it is seen as relatively simple.  The house was originally divided into two parts to allow Shakespeare’s father, John, to carry out his business as a glove maker and wool dealer from the premises.  It is half-timber with wattle and daub on a wooden frame.  Local oak and blue-grey stone were used in the construction with the large fireplaces made of brick and stone.  The ground level has stone-flagged floors.  Rectangular in shape the ground floor had a parlor with fireplace, a large open hearth, and a hallway, cross passage and a room that served as John’s workshop.  Upstairs was basically the same configuration with three chambers accessed by a staircase from the hall.  At a later date a single-bay house, known as Joan Hart’s Cottage, was built onto the northwest end and a kitchen was added at the rear with a chamber above it.

At the death of his father, William took over the ownership of the house.  Since he already owned New Place in Stratford and didn’t need the Henley Street house he leased it out.  It was converted into an inn called the Maidenhead and later the Swan and Maidenhead Inn.  Shakespeare’s widowed sister, Joan Hart, occupied the small one-bay house that had been added.  When William passed away the whole property passed to his daughter, Susanna and from her to her only child, Elizabeth and finally to Thomas Hart the descendant of Joan.  The Harts retained ownership until 1806 when it was sold.  Once the family line came to an end, the house fell into disrepair until there was an interest in it as Shakespeare’s birthplace.  A reconstruction project between 1857 and 1864 removed brickwork that had been placed over the timber framed house to restore the outside to its 16th century state.  Flowers and herbs that would have known in Shakespeare’s time have been planted in the walled garden area. 

Trivia:  Several notable persons, like Isaac Watts, Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, and Thomas Carlyle, who visited the house autographed the walls and windows and some of those remain on the windowpanes.   The guest book contains the signatures of Lord Byron, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, John Keats, and William Thackery.

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare’s_Birthplace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Salmon_Ltd
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2017/sep/25/postcards-demise-britains-oldest-publisher-industry-death
http://www.jsalmon.com/aboutus.htm

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 451

National Museum of Finland

This is an unused Finnish postcard with the date, Summer 1950, written on the reverse.  The black and white photograph shows the National Museum in Helsinki, Finland.  No photographer credits and no information about publication or distribution.  Also no date on the photo, hence the picture may be older than the handwritten date on the back of the card.

Designed by architects Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen it was built between 1905 and 1910 with an official public opening in 1916.  Akseli Gallén-Kallela painted the entrance hall ceiling frescoes in 1928.  The frescoes are done in the national epic Kalevala theme and are based on frescoes the artist painted for the Finnish Pavilion for the Paris World Fair of 1900. 

The museum houses objects of Finnish cultural history from the Stone Age to the present day.  The exterior of the building located in central Helsinki is in the National Romantic style and was designed to reflect Finland's medieval churches and castles, while the interior is mainly in the art nouveau style.  In 2006 there was a gas pipe leak and spark from the power distribution cabinet caused an explosion in the Silver Room which damaged most of the display cases and some silver objects.  Nobody was hurt and all the objects were repaired.  The Silver Room was reopened in 2007.  Originally the name was the Finnish National Museum.   It was part of the National Board of Antiquities until 2018 when it became part of the Finnish Heritage Agency under the Ministry of Culture and Education and is now known as the National Museum of Finland.

The exhibits are divided into different parts: 
1.    Treasure Troves--includes collections of coins, medals, orders and decorations, silver, jewelry, and weapons.
2.    Prehistory of Finland—the largest archeological exhibition in Finland
3.    The Realm--showing the development of Finnish culture from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century
4.    The Land and Its People—features Finnish folk culture in the 18th and 19th centuries
5.    The 20th century—focuses on Finland and Finns called “Suomi Finland 1900” that was open between 2012 and 2015.
6.    Workshop Vintti—Easy History—is an interactive exhibition.  Activities in this section point visitors to the way to explore the permanent exhibits in the museum.
7.    A new permanent exhibit called “The Profane Middle Ages” was opened in 2017-2018.  Additional planning and construction of the new permanent exhibit is in progress.


For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Finland

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 450

Huangshan Guesthouse, Mt. Huangshan, China

The photograph on this unused postcard shows a guesthouse in the mountains in a sea of clouds.  Zhaohua Publishing House of Beijing, China distributed the card that was printed in Japan.  There is the alphanumeric code at the lower left corner of the reverse:  87CE-370.  No photographer is credited with the photo. 

This area of China is famous for its clouds, bizarre rocks, hot springs, winter snow, and strange looking pine trees.  The guesthouse is about 280 km or 173 miles from Hangzhou City.  The type of landscape shown in the picture is also a frequent subject in traditional Chinese paintings, photographs, and literature including poetry.  The area is also known for light effects, sunrises and something called “Buddha’s Light” that appears a couple of times per month.  The hot spring water is said to help prevent skin, joint and nerve illnesses. 

With more than 1.5 million visitors a year, Huangshan is a major tourist destination in China.  There more than 50 km or 31 miles of footpaths that provide access to scenic vista spots and hotels and guesthouses to accommodate overnight visitors.  As many or more than 60,000 stone steps have been carved into the mountain.  Although the exact date of the construction of the steps is not known they are said to be more than 1,500 years old. Porters bringing supplies to the hotels and guesthouses carry them around the mountain on foot using long poles balanced over their shoulders or backs.  Many visitors hike up the mountains, spend the night at one of the peaks, and descend the next day by a different route.  The China National Tourism Administration has classified the scenic area as AAAAA.

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangshan